Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty is already wowing critics and generating serious awards buzz ahead of its official December 19 opening date, and if you’re curious as to how the Hurt Locker director and her partner Mark Boal managed to get this project off the ground, Vulture has a fascinating behind-the-scenes profile that you’ll want to check out.

The feature covers a wide range of topics relating to the film – including how plans Boal and Bigelow had to make a film about the failed attempt to capture bin Laden at Tora Bora fell apart in the aftermath of his death in 2011. While some filmmakers would have been crushed by the news that their project (one they’d been working for years) was now irrelevant, Bigelow and Boal simply shifted gears and found a better story in the process.

The piece goes in depth in regards to how they made the transition – and Bigelow’s fanatical devotion to realism. That realism wasn’t lost on her cast, either.

Actor Jason Clarke plays a U.S. agent in the early stages of the film – and one scene calls for him to interrogate a prisoner using the controversial method of waterboarding. Clarke subjected himself to a real-life waterboarding to gain insight into what was going on.

Website Showbiz 411 reports that the actor told fellow star Jessica Chastain that he tried it out “and I can tell you, it’s not something you ever want to do. But I wanted to understand the experience.”

That’s some pretty crazy method acting. Would you be willing to endure these kinds of things for a role? How excited are you to see Zero Dark Thirty? Let us know below.

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